Well, they showed quite a few comic packs, only some allocated for conventions. How are the others coming out?

There are still about 5 mainline comic 2-packs left. Those should be out in April. The 2 x WalMart exclusive 2-packs are due out around that time, too. After that there's the SDCC Exclusive VISIONARIES Comic 2-pack, and then there's the DARKLIGHTER Comic 2-pack that will be exclusive to Celebration 5.

Any other comic 2-packs from that point on will have to be exclusives. As for Q3 & Q4 exclusives, both Hasbro and the retailers are keeping quiet for the time being.

I agree, I think there is going to be a lot less stuff offered, especially in the way of battlepacks. I think the only new ones appear to be Clone Wars and since I am sticking with Legacy figures there is a lot less. Only problem is that they are supposed to be stocking less from what I read so there won't be as many figures around and I know they say the exlcusives are going to be "very limited" but not sure if they mean it this year since interest is going down. I guess we'll see what happens. I haven't found any of the ESB wave yet and the last wave of figures is now going to be exclusive to Toys-R-Us and then nothing until August so I will have a lot less to spend, only a few exclusives and vehicles along the way.

I was actually expecting to see a bit more than we did. We did see the first 11 Vintage Figures, but all we got to see were four new Clone Wars figures.

Does this mean the first wave of Clone Wars is going to be four new figures and EIGHT old figures in the new "Shadow of the Dark Side" packaging? I hope they don't repeat their same tactics from the Red/White line, the repacked figures from the Blue/White line are the ones that seem to hang around the longest.

A lot of folks are like "it's going to be an expensive year" but from what I can see, it's going to be LESS expensive. There's only going to be six or seven $20 - $25 vehicles, one large vehicle, the deluxe figures, some convention exclusives and what looks to be fewer figures from the months of August to December than we got in 2009.

I know we haven't see what other WalMart, Target and TRU exclusives might be coming, but still how is it going to be a more expensive year than 2009 was? If anything, I get the feeling that they are scaling back quite a bit. Which, I would definitely welcome. Especially since I'm probably going to be picking up two AT-ATs just to keep MIB (one regular version and one TRU exclusive Vintage packaging version).

Love the new vintage figures. I also like the Mail-away Boba Fett they have for offer, nice to see a little throwback to the old school fellas. I also like some of the exclusives they have offered to commemorate ESB, they look great.

I expect that we're going to see some answers on *SOME* of the unreleased comic 2-packs. Almost all of them appear to be slated as event exclusives, although some could wind up as retail exclusives. I would be surprised if all of these wind up being revealed on Saturday though.

It definitely appears as though Hasbro wants to keep the starfighter vehicle under one SKU. It makes shipping the vehicles easier, along with allocating shelf space. Having vehicles in two different kinds of packaging has the potential to be confusing. Whether or not all of the vehicles will be branded with the Clone Wars label? We'll have to see about that. The big news about vehicles may be from one of the retailers. Hasbro hinted that something may be up with the vehicle line and one of the retail chains so we'll have to see how that pans out.

As for Saturday? Hopefully the weather is going to clear by then. My colleagues from JTA are coming in from Kentucky and Pennsylvania and they've got long drives ahead of them. The weather should be clearing up by thursday morning.

Now as for Toy Fair? I think the big push from Hasbro will be the Vintage line. They appear to be set to make a big push to bring the collector base back with the reintroduction of the black and silver packaging. The new AT-AT, Snowspeeder and Cloud Car also seem to be a part of this formula.

I think it will be a healthy mix of both.

While the event they hold for the collector sites will probably be Vintage figure (and the supporting vehicles) focused, I wouldn't doubt that when the retailers come through, they focus on the cartoon product since that's what has the media behind it.

They are actually being smart when it comes to the vehicle packaging. By putting in boxes that is identical to the Clone Wars stuff, they could always show the Snowspeeder, Cloud Car and AT-AT and fool the retailers into thinking that it is Clone Wars product supported by the cartoon network show.

I'm pretty excited to see the Vintage figure waves they have planned for 2010, but I'm equally excited to see the Clone Wars waves they have planned for 2010. I'm mildly interested in what they have planned for Legends, but only from the point of view to see what army builders they have planned for the line. If they include figures like the Storm Commando, SA TIE Pilot, (all black) V-Wing Pilot (evolutions sculpt), or even just an all white improved Republic Commando sculpt [Read: Essentially any of the army builders from the recent WM evolutions sets] then I'll be pretty happy since that will give me an opportunity to build up some squads. It's probably wishful thinking though.

Lastly, I'm eager to hear what the plans are for the "lost" comic packs. Where will the "censored" WM Rogue Squadron pack end up? What about Cammie and Fixer? What about Visionaries Darth Maul w/the cybernetic legs? Is there a chance we might still get Delilah Blue, Darth Nihl, Jareal and Roland Dyre?

I would like to think that they will be scaling back on the exclusives this year, but I said the same thing last year and there were just as many this year. Hopefully TRU, Target and WalMart are starting to get the picture with so many of the exclusives having to go on clearance.

It will be nice to see final versions of the Swamp Speeder and the Droid Gunship as well.

I hope you're able to get into the city for the event on Saturday (I think that's the day it's being held) - down here in Manahawkin it's coming down pretty heavy and the weather channel still indicates that the snow will continue through Thursday morning!

Yes, that's the answer I was referring to. Getting Hasbro to scale back on prices right now appears to be wishful thinking. I think it could bring a good number of collectors back into the fold, but it may not be enough to drive up volume sales to the point where Hasbro and the retailers see increased profits.

I know that the whole product safety scandal with Chinese produced goods did have an impact on the US toy industry and it's pricing. Almost everything is made in China now because the labor is cheap. But those costs went up because of mandates for greater supervision of factories that were producing toys that would wind up being sold in America. And if you know anything about the corporate sector any time there is an increase in manufacturing costs it is going to get passed on to the consumers.

Now as for Toy Fair? I think the big push from Hasbro will be the Vintage line. They appear to be set to make a big push to bring the collector base back with the reintroduction of the black and silver packaging. The new AT-AT, Snowspeeder and Cloud Car also seem to be a part of this formula.

I have to echo Pete's comments. Their logic is faulty, as usual, the collectors began to walk, myself included, when they raised the prices of all of their figures to ridiculous prices. How do they justify GiJoe figures being at the same price as star Wars, what about Marvel Legends. These all share (or shared) the same inflated cost. If they were being truthful in their resonse and the raised the prices on Star Wars figures due to customers walking away then did collectors walk away from all of their products this year...? If so then they need to ask themselves why that happened...gee could it be they raised their prices during a horrible recession. I think until people ask Hasbro hard and aggressive questions real answers we won't get.

The day that I pay $12 for a 3 3/4 sized figure is the day I quit collecting. Hasbro needs to know what the ceiling is and they hit it BIG TIME this last year. $6.99 was pushing it, $8.99 is just pure greed.

The pack-ins have been dropped from the new Legacy-type line starting with this Fall. They will still continue on in the Clone Wars and Saga Legends figures, though, in a new approach that will allow kids to play with their figures in a new way. The replacement for Legacy, a new Vintage line, will not have pack-ins. Nor will it have a reduced retail price. The only way to continue to bring significant newly tooled figures to collectors is to keep the price where it's at. Unless many of the collectors who have left the hobby come back, the new reality is that we are dealing with smaller release numbers, which means that our tooling is a bigger proportion of the cost of everything we do. Price decreases would not be possible unless we dramatically cut back on the number of new figures, which we do not think collectors want to see.

I suppose that could be the answer to my second question, there is the part of my question that asks if they think the recent rises in price could have anything to do with the lack of collector interest.

The way I see it, and their answer only reinforces the issue, is that the more sales, the more they make, the more they make, the lower the cost. But the reverse is also true, the higher the cost, the fewer the sales, the fewer the production runs which in turn continues to drive the cost higher. It's a slippery slope really.

In fact, the higher and higher the pricepoint goes, parents are just going to cut back on the number of figures they get their kids for b-days or the holidays. If two years ago you could get five figures for $30 ($6 each) and in a year you can only get four for $32 ($8 each), that just means that people who budget what they can spend are going to buy one figure less than they would have had the prices been just a dollar or two lower. I know that might seem insignificant, but if you've ever found yourself buying toys for nieces or nephews, it never comes down to buying a specific item, it comes down to how much you want to spend. "Oh, it's Johnny's b-day coming up? He loves Star Wars, let's get him $40 worth of stuff."

In four years are we going to be reading Q&A answers where they justify a $12 price-point on figures and continue to complain that it's the collectors' fault that the realistic and Clone Wars lines aren't selling?

Have fun Nick - I went to Toy Fair one time before but back in the mid-90s to check out the Playmates Star Trek offerings, it was pretty cool.

Anyway, if you could ask them this, I'd love to know the answer:

Why not just get rid of the Legends sub-line and put the repacked figures in with the Vintage collection? It would (a) help keep the cost-per-assortment down; (b) allow you to keep "core characters" in circulation; (c) provide collectors with carded releases of characters/figures that are pretty good now and don't need improving on the new style cards; and (d) reduce confusion at retail where the retail employees regard Star Wars figures as one all-encompassing toy line and really don't care what figures are on which pegs, in fact their management tells specifically to fill and front-face all of the pegs regardless of whether or not the stock correctly matches the peg tag.

and also:

Is it possible that you have reached the ceiling of what people are willing to pay for a regular/standard release 3.75" action figure? Could $8 be too high? Could the higher price of the figures now as compared to what the price of figures were when the OTC, ROTS, TSC or TAC lines were out be playing a role in lack of sales dollars more than the claim that there are fewer collectors buying product? Parents and collectors would be equally less likely to buy in quantity at a higher price per unit.

If these are too agressive, I understand. I just can't help but feel that they are horribly misguided as of late and I'm REALLY getting sick of all of their "collectors are to blame" answers in the Q&A sessions..

That's awesome that you'll be there! This is definitely one of my more anticipated Toy Fairs.

I guess any question about the Vintage Collection would be cool...basically their thinking behind it, if having the Vintage-styled cardbacks for an entire line is something they always planned to do, or if it's mostly in response to collectors walking away from the hobby in the past year or two, as they claim.

We're just under a week away from 2010's NY International Toy Fair. A number of collecting sites will be attending Hasbro's Star Wars presentation and checking out the new line. You can check out my own reports from Toy Fair at Jedi Temple Archives.

This also presents representative from the collector media with an opportunity to speak with Hasbro one-on-one. IF there are any questions that anyone has in advance of Hasbro's presentation on Saturday, February 13th please post them here. I may be able to get answers for your questions.